As a freelancer, my personal and professional lives don't keep clearly different hours. As I wait for my morning coffee to brew, I check in with my '04 PowerBook G4. I visit the Mac all day, until just before I brush my teeth for bed.

With its constant use, my computer's aluminum finish is scratched. Its sides are dented. And the vintage processor chugs whenever it runs more than a couple applications. So when I ordered a new Mac Book Pro last week, I was totally excited.

The cost almost killed my buzz, over $2,500 just for the computer. And then there's all the software to buy; my clients are already asking me to write copy for layouts in InDesign CS3, but I hadn't upgraded.

Ready for another big gulp, I clicked onward to Adobe – and that's the point of this story. As a member of AIGA, I save 15% from the software company. For me, that translated to $89.95 off the $599 price for Creative Suite Design Premium CS3 upgrade. With tax and shipping I paid just $536.22.

(Although I'm not a designer, I often write directly in InDesign so that my copy fits designers' layouts. I also put together my own website in Dreamweaver.)

Membership in AIGA has also saved me money on events. This year, I've seen David Carson, Chip Kidd and attended a few BuZz meetings.

In total, I'll probably save a couple of hundred bucks thanks to my AIGA membership. Together, these discounts offset a good chunk of my $295 membership dues.

If you enter AIGA competitions or attend things like the AIGA National Conference or Image, Space, Object, you could save even more. Oh, and there's a FedEx discount, too.

Of course, AIGA is so much more than a discount. In fact, I didn't even know about the Adobe discount when I joined.

For me, the decision to join came when I did my taxes last year. That was when I realized that my biggest client is someone I met at a Studio FAC event.

As a member of AIGA, I also know that I'm doing my part to support a strong creative community in Colorado and across North America. So not all of the numbers in this article are precise, I'm not a spreadsheet kind of guy. But when it comes membership in AIGA, even a math-phobic designer can figure out what I have: the value more than adds up.

Links:
Join AIGA Now
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/join

AIGA Benefits
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/benefits

Adobe Discount
Members Only Section of AIGA Site
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm//content.cfm/members-only